Click to enlarge — Photo/Maersk Tankers
❝ Maersk Tankers says that it has completed the first drone delivery to a vessel at sea as part of a test to see whether or not drones can become a part of the supply chain.
The company says the test delivery took place near Kalundborg in Denmark and involved a drone dropping a small parcel to one of its tankers. Due to weather, the drone could not be launch from shore as planned, but rather was launched from a nearby tugboat, which dropped the package from a height of 5 meters above deck.
❝ Maersk Tankers is hopeful that the by using drones it can significantly reduce the cost of delivery of small parcels filled with urgent spare parts, mail or medicine, when compared to using traditional methods of delivery…
The usual CYA-statements are included, e.g., safety, security, blah, blah. Actually, there are beaucoup uses for these wee flying robots at sea. Surely a better way to carry a line from ship-to-ship than anything that uses gunpowder. 🙂
Eideard 
“Imagine F-16s Deploying Swarms of Tiny Drones : Actually, you don’t have to imagine — Perdix drones are real” http://warisboring.com/articles/imagine-f-16s-deploying-swarms-of-tiny-drones/ See also “DepSecDef Work Details 2017 Budget: Offset Just Beginning EXCLUSIVE” http://breakingdefense.com/2016/02/high-tech-seed-corn-for-next-president-bob-work-on-2017-budget/ “We need another year of really thinking about the Third Offset Strategy before we would ever make any firm bets,” Work said of the nascent effort to stay ahead of China and Russia. “For the next year, what we’re doing on the Third Offset is really working with the (House and Senate Armed Services Committees) and with the services to develop the operational concepts that would help us determine what are the key bets we’re going to make.” (U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work)